Neil Woodford’s ‘sorry saga’ finally ends as flagship fund set to be wound up October 15, 2019 Neil Woodford is to be fired from his flagship fund, which will shortly be wound up, the administrator charged with overseeing its frozen assets has announced. Corporate director Link Fund Solutions has written to investors to say it will return their cash as soon as possible from Woodford Investment Management. Read more: Watchdog calls for [...]
Finance watchdog to crack down on interest-linked car commission October 15, 2019 Britain’s financial watchdog has said it plans to ban auto dealers from taking commission linked to the interest rates on loans used to pay for cars, which it says would save consumers £165m. Dealers and brokers that receive interest-linked commission can currently set the rate, causing a strong incentive for them to act against customers’ [...]
Michel Barnier: Brexit deal ‘still possible this week’ despite difficult talks October 15, 2019 The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said today that reaching a fresh Brexit deal “will be difficult” but that it “is still possible this week”. Barnier told EU ministers in Luxembourg that Brexit negotiations with the UK are “intense” and that “our team are working hard”. Read more: Sterling creeps back up as hopes [...]
Sterling creeps back up as Brexit deal hopes return October 15, 2019 Sterling has risen against the dollar and euro this morning as investors regain some optimism over a possible Brexit deal. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was boosted yesterday when hardline Tory rebels signalled that they would be willing to vote for a Brexit agreement if it were brought before the Commons. This morning, the European Union [...]
No-deal Brexit: The potential winners and losers October 15, 2019 As you read this, Brexit negotiators are working around the clock to come to an agreement that will enable the UK to leave the EU in an orderly way by the Halloween deadline. Both sides have said they are committed to working out a deal, but with time so short, nothing is certain. If they [...]
City Moves for 15 October – Who’s switching jobs at Currencycloud, Frame and Hilton? October 15, 2019 Today’s City Moves includes Currencycloud, Frame and Hilton Currencycloud London-based fintech and cross-border payments platform Currencycloud has appointed Barbera De Jong to chief people officer. Barbera will be responsible for driving organisational evolution across the business, which has more than doubled its headcount since 2017 to over 200 employees across its offices in London, Cardiff, [...]
Sorry not sorry: End the apology culture in business October 15, 2019 When David Neeleman, the founder of American airline JetBlue, published a YouTube video entitled “Our Promise to You” in 2007, it was the first corporate social media apology. The video set the standard for modern crisis management. Snow storms and bad planning had forced the airline to cancel more than a thousand flights, affecting over [...]
Warning: The conveyor belt of global growth is grinding ever more slowly October 15, 2019 Where has all the growth gone? It’s the biggest economic question that we face – not just in Britain, but throughout the world. Ignore the stresses and uncertainties caused by Brexit, or Donald Trump’s trade war, or whatever the latest problem of the day is. The bigger picture is that the world just isn’t growing [...]
This bland and disappointing Queen’s Speech is no remedy for our broken politics October 15, 2019 “Civilisation is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.” So wrote Jean-Jacques Rousseau, maybe somewhat cynically. Yet, listening to yesterday’s Queen’s Speech it is hard not to glimpse a thread of truth in Rousseau’s words. Longer sentences to make up for increased crime exacerbated by past cuts and the progressive breakdown [...]
DEBATE: Is Nicola Sturgeon overplaying her hand by demanding a Scottish independence referendum next year? October 15, 2019 Is Nicola Sturgeon overplaying her hand by demanding a Scottish independence referendum next year? Iain Anderson, executive chairman at Cicero Group, says YES. Sick and tired of being sick and tired of endless elections and referendums? I think most of us are. So when I heard Scotland’s first minister say this weekend that the SNP [...]